September 05, 2017

Map Update #2: Al Shabaab's Humanitarian Response

Al Shabaab restricted humanitarian assistance operations and prevented locals from leaving its strongholds in Somalia to seek aid, backtracking on a more lenient policy adopted earlier this year. Nearly six million Somalis rely onhumanitarian aid efforts after a catastrophic drought pushed the country toward famine.[1] Al Shabaab initially responded to the crisis by distributing its own aid and allowing selected aid organizations to access drought-impacted communities in areas under its control.[2] The group reverted to a harsher policy after May 2017 that includes abducting aid workers, burning food, and executing civilians who seek aid outside of the group’s jurisdiction.[3] The posture may be to ensure that al Shabaab continues to be able to extract resources from aid flows into its strongholds.

Al Shabaab’sobstruction of aid and migration advances the group’s campaign to create a shadow government to supplant the Somali Federal Government (SFG) in rural Somalia by degrading public perception of the SFG’s aid delivery efforts. Al Shabaab’s control over humanitarian assistance forces local populations to rely on the group for survival, while blocking migration ensures that the group’s strongholds remain populated. Internal leadership disputes over al Shabaab’s strategy prompted the group to divert its resources away from its humanitarian response.[4] Al Shabaab’s ability to govern terrain and local populations enables the group to pursue a broader insurgent campaign against U.S. allies in the Horn of Africa and present Somalia as a refuge for Salafi-jihadis fleeing Iraq and Syria.[5]